08/17/2011
Student Spotlight
As a PhD candidate at Cornell University, Shawn Carey conducts research in the lab of Cindy Reinhart-King studying the role of cellular biomechanics in cancer onset and progression. Shawn is especially interested in the intersection of the physical and life sciences with clinical oncology, and Cornell has proven to be an ideal place to study these problems. Through its facilities for advanced imaging and nanofabrication, as well as the Weill Cornell Medical College, Shawn has been able to explore cancer biology from many angles. His research is part of a National Cancer Institute-funded multi-institution network of engineers, cancer biologists, and clinicians, and through the Cornell Physical Sciences-Oncology Center (PSOC), Shawn has been able to interact and work with a diverse community of researchers, which has ensured that his thesis work is novel, clinically-relevant, and based upon sound biology and engineering principles. One of the hallmarks of the BME graduate program at Cornell is the Immersion Term, in which students spend the summer after their first year in New York City at Weill Cornell shadowing and conducting research with a clinical mentor. Working in the Department of Pathology with his mentor, Dr. Sandra Shin, Shawn studied cancer biology, learned about the clinical management of cancer, and witnessed firsthand the challenges that oncologists face in diagnosis and treatment. This experience reinforced Shawn’s view that communication and collaboration among biomedical engineers, clinicians, and other researchers in the physical and life sciences are absolutely critical and sent him back to Ithaca teaming with new ideas about where to take his research.
Shawn’s involvement with BMES began as an undergraduate at Worcester Polytechnic Institute, where he was a part of the local chapter for four years, serving as Vice President and President of the organization. In the fall of 2009, he started graduate school at Cornell University and began his involvement in the Cornell BMES chapter. Like many student members, the core of Shawn’s BMES experience has been the Annual Meeting, where he has welcomed the opportunity to meet the people with whom he will spend the rest of his career interacting and collaborating. Shawn has also enjoyed sharing his work in poster and platform presentations in both the Technical and Education tracks over the past several years. Shawn thinks the BMES Annual Meeting is unique scientifically in that it brings together a range of innovative tools and techniques to answer an equally novel range of questions relating to human health. Thinking about his own research in the context of these new ideas has given Shawn a completely unique perspective on the problems he is trying to solve.
Shawn extended his involvement in BMES to the national level in the fall of 2009, when he became the Student Representative to the Board of Directors and a member of the Student Affairs Committee. In these roles, Shawn serves as an advocate for the student members of BMES, which is a responsibility that he finds quite rewarding. For the past two years, Shawn has interacted with other students at the Chapter Development and Student Leadership Workshops at the BMES Annual Meeting, which has allowed him to provide the Board of Directors with insight into the interests, wants, and concerns of the student population of the Biomedical Engineering Society. Recently, student members were surveyed to determine how to improve the value of their BMES membership. One of the students’ highest priority goals was a centralized K-12 Outreach Program that members could use as a resource to promote science and biomedical engineering and help local chapters better serve their communities. Toward this goal, Shawn is currently working with BMES leadership to develop a program that will provide student chapters with administrative support, scientific content, and materials for local BME-related outreach activities.
Shawn encourages student members to stay tuned for more information about this and many other exciting programs, and as always, he welcomes your feedback through email at spc73@cornell.edu.